Journalists on raided flotilla leaving Israel, speaking out

Firsthand accounts from reporters who were on the flotilla of humanitarian activists raided by Israeli forces on Monday are finally coming out as the journalists are released from custody. These early reports indicate that soldiers harassed international journalists—at least six had their equipment either confiscated or destroyed, according to CPJ interviews and news reports. Media accounts have indicated that 60 journalists or more were aboard the ships; on Tuesday, CPJ independently verified the names and affiliations of 20 journalists who had been taken into custody.

Othman
Battiri, a senior producer at Al-Jazeera who was on board the Mavi Marmara and released on Tuesday, told
CPJ that soldiers confiscated Al-Jazeera's cameras, tapes, satellite phones,
and mobile phones. Battiri and his colleagues—Mohamed Vall, Jamal Elshayyal,
and Andre Abou Khalil—identified themselves as press, and had their wrists tied
with PlastiCuffs. They were also pushed and searched “in a humiliating way,” Battiri
said.

“For
sure, there is a psychological aftermath because of the way people were
treated, especially journalists,” he said. "We were supposed to cover this
and it is not right that we were treated in this way." Battiri added that
they were released "only in T-shirts and trousers" and without their
equipment.

Al-Jazeera
reporter Vall was released and sent to Jordan on Wednesday morning. "The
Israeli assault took those of us on the ship by complete surprise," Vall told
Aljazeera.net. "We saw about
30 war vessels surrounding this ship, and helicopters attacking with very
luminous bombs.”

Issam
Za'atar, an Al-Jazeera photographer who was on the ship, taken into custody,
and released on Tuesday, reported
that the Israeli soldiers used force, breaking his arm and his camera. He also
added that he went through a “long
and exhausting interrogation.”

According
to the Pakistani daily Express Tribuna,
two journalists for Pakistan’s
Aaj TV, Talat Hussain and Raza Mehmood Agha, who had been detained at Ela
prison in Beersheba arrived in Jordan today. Their
equipment was also confiscated.

Hussain
was quoted as telling Aaj TV by phone from Jordan: “Four people were shot in
the forehead in front me. I witnessed four people dying.”

We
anticipate that more details will emerge as journalists are being released,
although so far reporters appear to be leaving the country without their recording
equipment.

Comments

It is very condemable to mistreat and arrest the journalists. Even their professional equipment was confiscated,therefore, civil societies across the world should,collectively, condome this unethical and against-free-media act.